Many companies, including “big box” retail and mail-order companies, package items (e.g., books, CDs, apparel, food, etc.) and/or groups of items together to be shipped in fulfillment of requests from customers (e.g., internal or external, retail or wholesale customers). Retailers, wholesalers, and other product distributors (which may collectively be referred to as distributors) typically maintain an inventory of various items that may be ordered by customers. This inventory may be maintained and processed at a materials handling facility. Such materials handling facilities may include, but are not limited to, one or more of: warehouses, distribution centers, cross-docking facilities, order fulfillment facilities, packaging facilities, shipping facilities, or other facilities or combinations of facilities for performing one or more functions of material (inventory) handling.
Ordered items are typically packed in shipping packages (e.g., corrugated boxes) and shipped to the customer's residence or place of business. The delivery of physical items to a customer's specified location is traditionally accomplished using a delivery system including a human controlled truck, bicycle, cart, etc. For example, a customer may order an item for delivery to their home. The item may be picked by a human agent from a materials handling facility, packed and shipped to the customer for final delivery by a shipping carrier, such as the United States Postal Service, FedEx, or UPS. An agent of the shipping carrier will load the item onto a truck that is driven to the final delivery location and a driver, or another human companion with the driver, will retrieve the item from the truck and complete the delivery to the destination. Over time, an increasing frequency and volume of deliveries of items from e-commerce and mail-order companies has resulted in an increased need for faster and more efficient delivery methods.
While implementations are described herein by way of example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the implementations are not limited to the examples or drawings described. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit implementations to the particular form disclosed but, on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean “including, but not limited to.”